The riders in the great divide race have just crossed the great divide basin which is basically 160 miles of desert with nothing around. There was a reseviour that had some water like 100 miles into it. That was nice.
However, they have crossed it and are now in the town of Rawlins, Wyoming. This is their blog post
"And, we're going to find something to drink and think about sleeping arrangments. It's kind of a sketchy place to sleep in the ditch,"
I just want to say that: yes they are riding the thing in like 26 days. However, Matt and I had to sit and hide from a couple of dudes in Rawlins who pulled up in some crappy car and SMOKED CRACK for like 10 minutes in the parkinglot where we threw our bivy sacks.
Im going to have to do a general callout for the racers of the great divide mountain bike route to sack up. I mean you are riding all night in Grizzly country, but you are afraid of some cowboys? come on.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
...
Day 6 used to be a brutal road race. I wish.
Instead we had a 36 mile crit that we finished in 1:15. 29mph. It was stupid fast and just required not crashing to finish, although moving up sucked and a top 10 for me was unobtainable. 23rd on GC.
Oh well, good times, I regret not trying to bridge up to Minturn's move on the hilly day, I was the first person over the climb and got lazy / didnt want to chase a teammate. Also should have been more ready for that finish. Oh well.
Next year hopefully they have a time trial or something to sort out the 25 people tied for 8th place, myself included.
This is kind of zen like fortune cookie type stuff but: A bar with a stage and poles, but not dancers is not a gentleman's club.
Instead we had a 36 mile crit that we finished in 1:15. 29mph. It was stupid fast and just required not crashing to finish, although moving up sucked and a top 10 for me was unobtainable. 23rd on GC.
Oh well, good times, I regret not trying to bridge up to Minturn's move on the hilly day, I was the first person over the climb and got lazy / didnt want to chase a teammate. Also should have been more ready for that finish. Oh well.
Next year hopefully they have a time trial or something to sort out the 25 people tied for 8th place, myself included.
This is kind of zen like fortune cookie type stuff but: A bar with a stage and poles, but not dancers is not a gentleman's club.
Friday, June 22, 2007
T.O.O stage 5.
While Niner the Whiner and Amy were at home building a closet and rewiring my house, I was sitting at a coffee shop and racing my bike.
Man today could have been such a hard course. We only did 4 laps, which I am going to complain about a bit, because we were able to average 27mph with a 1 mile climb. I just wish there would have been more attrition. A & F controlled it, not letting anything get away, and just taking it down to a field sprint. It makes so much sense on their part to do that for the yellow jersey, but it kind of sucks for everybody else, because they have enough strong guys that they can bring just about anything back. They have 10 guys in the field. Oh well, I guess we should have just attacked them more or something.
Johnturn tried riding away from the field, turner was in a break, I attacked on the hill. Etc Etc. I thought I managed a top 20 , but got 26th. The sprint was weird, there was no leadout, no nothing, just kind of a finish. Oh well.
We have had some AWESOME sunsets during our drives home (all races are at like 5 at night, then we eat then we drive home). Tonight's drive involved lots of the Wu Tang Clan. sweet.
Tomorrow is the last day. I am in second to last of my group of dudes who all have the same time. It is filtered by best finish (mine is 26th), sucks. I need a top 10 in a 4 corner flat crit to get a better overall result. Bummer.
Sorry if there are more spelling errors than usual, mac's dont have the built in spellcheckthing on the blogger site. OH WAIT, THERE IS A LINE UNDER SPELLCHECKTHING... hmm?
Man today could have been such a hard course. We only did 4 laps, which I am going to complain about a bit, because we were able to average 27mph with a 1 mile climb. I just wish there would have been more attrition. A & F controlled it, not letting anything get away, and just taking it down to a field sprint. It makes so much sense on their part to do that for the yellow jersey, but it kind of sucks for everybody else, because they have enough strong guys that they can bring just about anything back. They have 10 guys in the field. Oh well, I guess we should have just attacked them more or something.
Johnturn tried riding away from the field, turner was in a break, I attacked on the hill. Etc Etc. I thought I managed a top 20 , but got 26th. The sprint was weird, there was no leadout, no nothing, just kind of a finish. Oh well.
We have had some AWESOME sunsets during our drives home (all races are at like 5 at night, then we eat then we drive home). Tonight's drive involved lots of the Wu Tang Clan. sweet.
Tomorrow is the last day. I am in second to last of my group of dudes who all have the same time. It is filtered by best finish (mine is 26th), sucks. I need a top 10 in a 4 corner flat crit to get a better overall result. Bummer.
Sorry if there are more spelling errors than usual, mac's dont have the built in spellcheckthing on the blogger site. OH WAIT, THERE IS A LINE UNDER SPELLCHECKTHING... hmm?
Thursday, June 21, 2007
stage 4.
A few notes.
- The pinnacle of the tour of ohio - going to 80's night tonight will not happen due to the fact that we are exhausted.
- minturn lent me his ksyriums tonight and they are really fast. I have never ridden a pair. A lot faster than the rolf vector comps
- I painted some dude's ceiling today for 10 dollars at 9am. That is as much as minturn made for a 3 hour race Tuesday
- I told Heckman that Danny Chew asks me after each race that I do if he was there. He beat chew at calvins a few years ago
- Stage races with no pros are pretty sweet. Its not super insane and winning isnt totally out of the question.
Speaking of questions, last night I checked in with the ladylove and described the course to her. I told her that there were 5 KOM's to really emphasize how hard it was. Her response: "how many did you get?"... Im glad that this bike racing thing is the only way that she sets the bar high for me.
So tonight was a 1.2 mile crit, 40 miles, fast and turning with a pretty brutal hill each lap. It was a rad course. It was all residential, and the mayor of the town spoke beforehand. The streets were closed and lined with people watching and cheering. I could smell hamburgers the whole time. It wasnt a brutally fast race, it wasnt terribly hard. With that course it could have been insane, the hill was long and steady. A and F basically didnt let anything go. Good plan, get Heckman the V and the Jersey and the time bonus. They did all pretty easily and successfully.
4 days of racing and I have seen the wind 2 times. Yesterday I attacked through the feedzone to try and bridge up to the break. It was a decent roller and I totally committed. I turned around the only pro in the race chased me down. I wasnt bummed, and was actually kind of honored that a pro deemed some squid cat 2 worth of wasting energy on.
The other wind seeing was tonight when the yellow jersey (dickey dewey) and Heckman were both in a move that had about 10 seconds. I bridged it on the hill, of course only to have the field come up like 3 seconds later. I was ready for a counter attack for sure, but nothing really came.
The rear tubular from the other day is FLAT. That is 3 tubies flatted this year in races. This leaves two options: Ride tufo's that I have had tons of luck with, but they ride like garden hoses. Or deal with flatting vitoria tubulars every other race (kirkwood, no flat. mingo flat, monday tour of ohio no flat, tuesday tour of ohio flat) AWESOME!
Dear Steevo of 2 years ago:
Please follow the advice of the people that you talked to and dont spend money on tubulars. Yes they look cool, yes it is lighter and faster, but is it REALLY worth it in the long run? is it? is it? PS, quit your job now, a brick is going to fall on your head in a few months!
Tomorrow is a circuit race in Yellow Springs. Antioch is closing this year, so it will be neat to see it for the last time. Maybe it will reopen. Maybe I will get a contact high from all the hippies drowning in their sorrows.
Awesome
- The pinnacle of the tour of ohio - going to 80's night tonight will not happen due to the fact that we are exhausted.
- minturn lent me his ksyriums tonight and they are really fast. I have never ridden a pair. A lot faster than the rolf vector comps
- I painted some dude's ceiling today for 10 dollars at 9am. That is as much as minturn made for a 3 hour race Tuesday
- I told Heckman that Danny Chew asks me after each race that I do if he was there. He beat chew at calvins a few years ago
- Stage races with no pros are pretty sweet. Its not super insane and winning isnt totally out of the question.
Speaking of questions, last night I checked in with the ladylove and described the course to her. I told her that there were 5 KOM's to really emphasize how hard it was. Her response: "how many did you get?"... Im glad that this bike racing thing is the only way that she sets the bar high for me.
So tonight was a 1.2 mile crit, 40 miles, fast and turning with a pretty brutal hill each lap. It was a rad course. It was all residential, and the mayor of the town spoke beforehand. The streets were closed and lined with people watching and cheering. I could smell hamburgers the whole time. It wasnt a brutally fast race, it wasnt terribly hard. With that course it could have been insane, the hill was long and steady. A and F basically didnt let anything go. Good plan, get Heckman the V and the Jersey and the time bonus. They did all pretty easily and successfully.
4 days of racing and I have seen the wind 2 times. Yesterday I attacked through the feedzone to try and bridge up to the break. It was a decent roller and I totally committed. I turned around the only pro in the race chased me down. I wasnt bummed, and was actually kind of honored that a pro deemed some squid cat 2 worth of wasting energy on.
The other wind seeing was tonight when the yellow jersey (dickey dewey) and Heckman were both in a move that had about 10 seconds. I bridged it on the hill, of course only to have the field come up like 3 seconds later. I was ready for a counter attack for sure, but nothing really came.
The rear tubular from the other day is FLAT. That is 3 tubies flatted this year in races. This leaves two options: Ride tufo's that I have had tons of luck with, but they ride like garden hoses. Or deal with flatting vitoria tubulars every other race (kirkwood, no flat. mingo flat, monday tour of ohio no flat, tuesday tour of ohio flat) AWESOME!
Dear Steevo of 2 years ago:
Please follow the advice of the people that you talked to and dont spend money on tubulars. Yes they look cool, yes it is lighter and faster, but is it REALLY worth it in the long run? is it? is it? PS, quit your job now, a brick is going to fall on your head in a few months!
Tomorrow is a circuit race in Yellow Springs. Antioch is closing this year, so it will be neat to see it for the last time. Maybe it will reopen. Maybe I will get a contact high from all the hippies drowning in their sorrows.
Awesome
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
T. O. O
Early race today, 1pm. All of the races have been 5 or 6 or 7 pm, which has given us lots of lounge time beforehand, howerver today we had to leave by 10am!
The course today apparently the brutal course. 68 miles, 5 kom's tons of other non point climbs. Brutal. Minturn had the race strategy, wait for the second to last climb and move. Sounds good. I dodged rocks and potholes while guys fell off and I moved up. Tailgunner.
At a certain point we were in the cantwel cliff state park. We were surrounded by pine that had baked in the arid sun all day. It was such an awesome smell. I havent smelled pine so suddenly or intensely since I stepped off an amtrak train like 4 years ago in Montana. I smelled the pine and looked at the lead cop car towing the pack up a gradual hill and was just so stoked to be right where I was, it was exactly what I wanted to be doing at that second. Awesome.
Dudes were slipping away all day and being brought back and then more would go. Nothing was too intense until Heckman got away, it was the move to be with for sure.
Minturn nailed the second to last climb with some gnarly dudes (one who as been caught for doping!) and they bridged up. Minturn popped, we passed him. Bummer.
The last climb was insane. It went up and up and up. Then we went around a turn and down a slight hill... which put us out at another HUGE climb. I have never heard the F bomb so many times. I heard a dude say "I f' ing hate this." awesome.
There was a dude who was so overgeared that he was RUNNING up the hill and keeping decent pace. I looked down when the dude was running up the hill and realized we were going 7mph. Bummer.
30 man sprint for 4th. I think I got 28th. Awesome.
Awesome
The course today apparently the brutal course. 68 miles, 5 kom's tons of other non point climbs. Brutal. Minturn had the race strategy, wait for the second to last climb and move. Sounds good. I dodged rocks and potholes while guys fell off and I moved up. Tailgunner.
At a certain point we were in the cantwel cliff state park. We were surrounded by pine that had baked in the arid sun all day. It was such an awesome smell. I havent smelled pine so suddenly or intensely since I stepped off an amtrak train like 4 years ago in Montana. I smelled the pine and looked at the lead cop car towing the pack up a gradual hill and was just so stoked to be right where I was, it was exactly what I wanted to be doing at that second. Awesome.
Dudes were slipping away all day and being brought back and then more would go. Nothing was too intense until Heckman got away, it was the move to be with for sure.
Minturn nailed the second to last climb with some gnarly dudes (one who as been caught for doping!) and they bridged up. Minturn popped, we passed him. Bummer.
The last climb was insane. It went up and up and up. Then we went around a turn and down a slight hill... which put us out at another HUGE climb. I have never heard the F bomb so many times. I heard a dude say "I f' ing hate this." awesome.
There was a dude who was so overgeared that he was RUNNING up the hill and keeping decent pace. I looked down when the dude was running up the hill and realized we were going 7mph. Bummer.
30 man sprint for 4th. I think I got 28th. Awesome.
Awesome
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Oh hi hi oh.
Tour of Ohio.
Day 1. We rolled to wapakonetta. This is 25 miles or so from the Indiana border... Long drive. The highway turned into a 2 lane country road with a 55 mph speed limit. When I was a young trouble maker we used to drive to Ft Wayne Indiana to ride bmx trails on this road. We used to wind down the windows of the left side of the car and drive close to the yellow line and see how hard the trucks would push the 88 plymouth reliant K car.
Anyway, we were pretty surprised to find out there were 127 starters. 1k crit, 70 laps, 40 miles. It was such a tight course and there was no stretch that was longer than 50 meters, I think there were 8 turns all 90 degree. It wasnt so bad. Fast dudes attacked and counter attacked. I was just thinking "s/t... s/t..." which I was able to do pretty easily. I called amy and told her that I was tied for 4th... and 115th. Sweet.
We are in the company of awesome people who are letting us stay at their house. Nice place that is on the tour de grandview course. Pancakes and coffee, air conditioning, all the things I look for while vacationing.
Torrential down pouring 30 minutes before the race started wasnt sweet. Minturn convinced me to ride my tubulars anyway, well see if the tires flat. They will. The rain cleared and we got rolling.
The race was a 50 mile circuit race with some brutal hills. The finish was at the top of a hill on the kenyon college campus. 2 laps in I was what I thought mid pack, maybe 40th, and I look back and Im on the back... where did everybody go? Race race race attacks, breakaways, they got brought back, etc.
Minturn, Turner and I decided we arent here to win the overall (surprise) however we are here to have fun and make friends. Today I got 2 friends. I could possibly link a blog later this week of a person who is in the race that I might become friends with.
On lap 2 I thought about how I would rather actually be working on my house than riding 40mph through the windiest course in pouring rain.
Minturn got 10th place today, 10 bucks into the race bank account!!!
Awesome Ed held down the team car in the caravan, and nearly got into a fist fight. sweet.
Day 1. We rolled to wapakonetta. This is 25 miles or so from the Indiana border... Long drive. The highway turned into a 2 lane country road with a 55 mph speed limit. When I was a young trouble maker we used to drive to Ft Wayne Indiana to ride bmx trails on this road. We used to wind down the windows of the left side of the car and drive close to the yellow line and see how hard the trucks would push the 88 plymouth reliant K car.
Anyway, we were pretty surprised to find out there were 127 starters. 1k crit, 70 laps, 40 miles. It was such a tight course and there was no stretch that was longer than 50 meters, I think there were 8 turns all 90 degree. It wasnt so bad. Fast dudes attacked and counter attacked. I was just thinking "s/t... s/t..." which I was able to do pretty easily. I called amy and told her that I was tied for 4th... and 115th. Sweet.
We are in the company of awesome people who are letting us stay at their house. Nice place that is on the tour de grandview course. Pancakes and coffee, air conditioning, all the things I look for while vacationing.
Torrential down pouring 30 minutes before the race started wasnt sweet. Minturn convinced me to ride my tubulars anyway, well see if the tires flat. They will. The rain cleared and we got rolling.
The race was a 50 mile circuit race with some brutal hills. The finish was at the top of a hill on the kenyon college campus. 2 laps in I was what I thought mid pack, maybe 40th, and I look back and Im on the back... where did everybody go? Race race race attacks, breakaways, they got brought back, etc.
Minturn, Turner and I decided we arent here to win the overall (surprise) however we are here to have fun and make friends. Today I got 2 friends. I could possibly link a blog later this week of a person who is in the race that I might become friends with.
On lap 2 I thought about how I would rather actually be working on my house than riding 40mph through the windiest course in pouring rain.
Minturn got 10th place today, 10 bucks into the race bank account!!!
Awesome Ed held down the team car in the caravan, and nearly got into a fist fight. sweet.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Tour of Ohio prep.
Ok, let me just put on some new cables so I can shift well while Im getting dropped next week. Well that didnt fix it, maybe I need housing too. Nope that isnt it. New chain and cassette... nope.. Oh my shifter is broken. Apart comes the cross bike, on goes the shifter that has lasted years and crashes. Amazing being that the broken one is only a bit over a year and has no crashes.
Amy's jamis aurora touring bike came with sora 8speed STI's. They lasted 10,500 miles. We upgraded her to some sweet tiagra 9speed when the sora finally went.
My dura ace bling shifters only lasted 9000 or so miles. How does chew get 100,000 out of a pair?
In case anybody cares about RAAM, which most dont, Chew is posting his "chew's views" on cyclingnews. Last year I bet Danny that somebody would be stupid enough to do it in a fixed gear. Somebody has done the Furnace Creek 508 on a fixed gear (Talk about a niche catagory.. Women's fixed gear). Well this year is one step closer with some knucklehead doing it on a singlespeed (well actually two singlespeeds one for flats, one for hills)... Sounds like somebody needs to sack up.
Not sure which is gnarlier, doing RAAM on a singlespeed, or doing the Great Divide Race on a singlespeed as Kent Peterson did. I think the Great Divide might be. When Matt and I rode it last year, I remember going 4 mph in my 22x32 low gear and just being amazed that anybody could singlespeed (walk?) that freaking thing.
Im doing to say that Great Divide race, which started yesterday is one of the most grueling races ever and at the same time might have the least amount of prestige of any race ever.
Amy's jamis aurora touring bike came with sora 8speed STI's. They lasted 10,500 miles. We upgraded her to some sweet tiagra 9speed when the sora finally went.
My dura ace bling shifters only lasted 9000 or so miles. How does chew get 100,000 out of a pair?
In case anybody cares about RAAM, which most dont, Chew is posting his "chew's views" on cyclingnews. Last year I bet Danny that somebody would be stupid enough to do it in a fixed gear. Somebody has done the Furnace Creek 508 on a fixed gear (Talk about a niche catagory.. Women's fixed gear). Well this year is one step closer with some knucklehead doing it on a singlespeed (well actually two singlespeeds one for flats, one for hills)... Sounds like somebody needs to sack up.
Not sure which is gnarlier, doing RAAM on a singlespeed, or doing the Great Divide Race on a singlespeed as Kent Peterson did. I think the Great Divide might be. When Matt and I rode it last year, I remember going 4 mph in my 22x32 low gear and just being amazed that anybody could singlespeed (walk?) that freaking thing.
Im doing to say that Great Divide race, which started yesterday is one of the most grueling races ever and at the same time might have the least amount of prestige of any race ever.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
A post about television.
When I had energy, I used to be one of those dudes that didnt watch TV. There was a good 5 years where I didnt watch anything but the simpsons on video and skate/bmx videos. I guess that time was spent buying/listening to/talking about hardcore records. Rather than being able to talk about any pop culture stuff I was able to only talk about some small subculture. For a long time I had at least 5 roomates, so there was always something fun going on.
Anyway, in the past few years I have taken to watching TV. I dont hate it, its pretty funny sometimes etc etc.
This brings up the point of the post. THE WIRE this is seriously the best show I have ever seen. Its a series on HBO thats been on for like 6 years or something. I am about to finish the end of season 3 on DVD. It is so amazing. I was just out on a ride and was thinking about it a lot of the time. I was having real feelings of empathy for one of the characters. Maybe Im crazy. If you are bored and want something to do, rent the first season, and it only gets better from there.
So awesome.
Anyway, in the past few years I have taken to watching TV. I dont hate it, its pretty funny sometimes etc etc.
This brings up the point of the post. THE WIRE this is seriously the best show I have ever seen. Its a series on HBO thats been on for like 6 years or something. I am about to finish the end of season 3 on DVD. It is so amazing. I was just out on a ride and was thinking about it a lot of the time. I was having real feelings of empathy for one of the characters. Maybe Im crazy. If you are bored and want something to do, rent the first season, and it only gets better from there.
So awesome.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
FC / screw travelling.
Fort Collins hosts a wednesday worlds like every other place. Bunch of people start, few finish and there is a sprint. Brutal winds coming at you at all times. Fast dudes wearing pro kits participating.
I figured that since FC was kind of nice and there are tons of people riding bikes, I would check out the good will for some sweet cycling or patagonia stuff.
- 2 dollars for a sweet biemme Kostriker beer jersey (old german pro team?)
- 4 for louis garneau vest that is heavy weight!!!
Sweet.
Travelling on somebody else's watch is the worst. I had to sit next to a 300+ pound person on the plane. He was so big that I couldnt plug my headphones into the jack on the arm thing because his stomach was hanging over it. I was also unable to put my tray down! Literally. Good thing they charged me 65 bucks to crack my hard bike case. jagbags.
I figured that since FC was kind of nice and there are tons of people riding bikes, I would check out the good will for some sweet cycling or patagonia stuff.
- 2 dollars for a sweet biemme Kostriker beer jersey (old german pro team?)
- 4 for louis garneau vest that is heavy weight!!!
Sweet.
Travelling on somebody else's watch is the worst. I had to sit next to a 300+ pound person on the plane. He was so big that I couldnt plug my headphones into the jack on the arm thing because his stomach was hanging over it. I was also unable to put my tray down! Literally. Good thing they charged me 65 bucks to crack my hard bike case. jagbags.
Friday, June 01, 2007
saginasty
So my dad calls me last week and asks me to drive up and help him move to Colorado. Not a bad deal, I have to pack him up and drive his car, while he drives a uhaul. His car has no radio or clock.
There is a big sticker on the window that says "Radio does not work if removed from car".... Some smart guy removed it. Jagoff.
Saginaw is like flordia. Its hot, smells bad and is a flat grid. People ride crappy bikes to the liquor stores. I met a kid at a race in ohio from near here. I said "my dad lives in Saginaw" he said "Saginasty." He was pretty right on I guess.
On the upside of my dad being transfered to Colorado is that I will get to ride in Fort Collins for a few days when we finally get there. The drive across Nebraska will make me appreciate it more.
Ohio turnpike: There are very few "emergencey pull off" spots compared to PA. Anybody who has travelled with me knows how that is a bad thing. I drank 2 liters of water on the trip up and was DYING.
Blue Moon last night: A blue moon is when there are 2 full moons in one calandar month. Rare.
There is a big sticker on the window that says "Radio does not work if removed from car".... Some smart guy removed it. Jagoff.
Saginaw is like flordia. Its hot, smells bad and is a flat grid. People ride crappy bikes to the liquor stores. I met a kid at a race in ohio from near here. I said "my dad lives in Saginaw" he said "Saginasty." He was pretty right on I guess.
On the upside of my dad being transfered to Colorado is that I will get to ride in Fort Collins for a few days when we finally get there. The drive across Nebraska will make me appreciate it more.
Ohio turnpike: There are very few "emergencey pull off" spots compared to PA. Anybody who has travelled with me knows how that is a bad thing. I drank 2 liters of water on the trip up and was DYING.
Blue Moon last night: A blue moon is when there are 2 full moons in one calandar month. Rare.
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